Here we come, there we go – By Tony Campbell

Soon after we awoke this morning there was a knock on the door of the newly renovated Fuller Center house where we are staying on Lambert Street in Manassas Park, Va. Jonny Fath had arrived to join Segment 3 of the ride – Washington, D. C. to Virginia Beach. Welcome, Jonny!

We divided into two groups for our work day – group one would do landscaping at the house on Lambert Street, group two would assemble emergency preparedness kits for distribution to 500 low-income families. Let’s see – hard labor in stifling heat vs. light work in air conditioned comfort – I chose group two.

Unfortunately, our group was so efficient that we finished early and got to join group one. We distributed top soil, planted shrubs and grass seed, mulched, etc., trying hard to stay hydrated and not to track dirt into the beautifully renovated interior of the house. A few local TV stations covered the event for the evening news (here’s an online version!).

Jacob Koch, the energetic president of the Fuller Center of Northern Virginia, who bent over backwards to make our stay enjoyable and productive, brought pizza for lunch and then it was time to say good-bye to Sarah, who headed back to Pittsburgh. Bike boxes were obtained from a local bike shop and Chris expertly packed her bike, as well as Abby’s, Leah’s and Melissa’s for their departure tomorrow.

My bike did not need to be boxed, since Mary, my wife, arrived in our motor home at 4 p.m., having driven 700 miles in two days to take me back to Pittsburgh where we’ll attach the car I left behind and head back to Michigan.

For dinner we were invited to the home of Will and Diane Ameen. Will is a key volunteer on the Lambert Street house renovation whom we met Sunday at Manassas St. Thomas United Methodist Church. He spent the day landscaping with us and helping with various logistics. The dinner at his home was a perfect way to us to relax and regroup before heading out tomorrow – seven of us to Fredericksburg on bikes and four of us heading home. Three, actually, since I made my departure after dinner, having bequeathed my plot of living room carpet on Lambert Street to Jonny.

And the ride goes on.

At lunch I had shared a couple of songs I wrote for the ride. I wrote this for the 2008 ride, but it seemed especially appropriate for today with the “changing of the guard.”

Here we come, there we go.
Some ride fast, some ride slow.
But the job is getting done – and we’re having lots and lots of fun.

And the ride goes on.

We’ll miss you Tony! Help Tony meet his $2,000 fundraising goal here!

Click here to view Tony’s "Meet the Riders" video posted at the end of his last blog.